Housing Association CX - swccf.co.uk · Notting Hill Genesis Optivo Orbit Group Peabody Housing Association Places for People Sanctuary Housing Association Southern Housing Group

Housing Association CX A study of the pre-agent calling experience for residents

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Introduction

With the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire still ongoing, UK Housing

Associations have never been more in the spotlight. In this study, we aimed to

explore how committed a selection of the UK’s largest Housing Associations are in

delivering a great pre-agent caller experience.

We called 30 of the largest Housing Associations in the UK, with a range of caller scenarios

typically experienced by Housing Associations.

We assessed the pre-agent caller journey focusing on the IVR from welcome messages to

routing, in-queue content, scripting and caller waiting times; we scored every Housing

Association at each point based on our extensive knowledge of best practice to achieve

a great Customer Experience.

Over the course of our research, we found that most housing associations do well in

certain aspects of the journey, but overall most offer a poor pre-agent caller experience.

Of those that addressed each of the key parts of the journey the differences in

comparison with other Housing Associations were dramatic. This report details our

methods, our analysis, and our insights. Here are just a few of our top-level findings…...

■ 90% of Housing Associations called had an IVR

■ Only 48% of those had professionally recorded IVR messaging

■ All Housing Associations surveyed had some level of in-queue experience (where we

were placed in a queue)

■ 37% had scripting that we felt was conversational and “human sounding”

■ Only 13% avoided common telephony clichés in their scripting

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Methodology For our study sample, we selected 30 of the largest Housing Associations across the

UK based on publicly available social housing stock figures:

A2Dominion

Aster Group

Bromford

Clarion Housing Group

Derwent Living

Gentoo Group

Glasgow Housing Association

Home Group

Liverty

London & Quadrant (L&Q)

Metropolitan

Midland Heart

Notting Hill Genesis

Optivo

Orbit Group

Peabody Housing Association

Places for People

Sanctuary Housing Association

Southern Housing Group

Sovereign Housing Association

Stonewater

The Guinness Partnership

The Hyde Group

The Riverside Group

Thirteen Group

VIVID

Wakefield and District Housing

Waterloo Housing Group

WM Housing Group

Your Housing Group

The map shows the approximate

location of the registered office

address for each Housing

Association.

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Our study focuses on the 3 key components of a call…

In-Queue

Scripting

IVR

Audio Scripting

Knowing how we speak to our customers is just as important as what we say to them.

But we’re not just talking about agent responses. The need for precise, well positioned

and scripted wording in IVR menu, and in-queue messages is often totally overlooked…

and this means that aggravating clichés such as “your call is important to us” are still far

too common.

To assess the quality and effectiveness of each Housing Association’s scripting, we

looked for adherence to best practice (e.g. removing “www.” from web addresses),

the number of topics per message, tone of voice, the avoidance of clichés, and

unnecessary repetition.

IVR Routing

The Interactive Voice Response system

(IVR) is the gatekeeper for incoming calls

– it matches each customer with the

right agent. But if designed poorly, it

obstructs and frustrates callers.

Guided by our Best Practice principles,

we graded IVR menus across 11 different

categories. These included the number

of initial menu options and subsequent

layers, audio quality and overall design.

Where there was no initial IVR

menu, we have removed

those Housing Associations

from this section of the

study. This was to avoid

unfairly skewing the

results against Housing

Associations without

IVRs, as we were still

able to get through

to an agent.

In-Queue Experience

The “in-queue” space is one of the most

difficult parts of a call to get right. Do a

good job here, and the caller is kept

calm and entertained while they wait

to speak to someone. Get it wrong,

and the experience can be intensely

irritating creating a bad first impression

and leading to costly call drop-outs.

We’ve been telephony specialists for

over two decades. So, to judge each

Housing Association, we assessed

criteria including volume

consistency and

appropriateness,

message variety, music

quality (e.g. default

“system music” or

inappropriate genres)

and abrupt messages

that cut in without any

fades... or even worse:

silences, engaged

tones, or no queue

facility at all!

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Summary of key findings from our study…

IVR Routing

The good news is that all the Housing Associations audited had a welcome message and

that 90% had an IVR menu. Welcome messages provide the immediate reassurance that

a caller has contacted the desired organisation. IVR menus are not appropriate for every

organisation but represent opportunities for more efficient call handling and the

deployment of deflection and informational messaging.

Less than half of the IVR messages were professionally recorded. Whilst in-house options

are functional, they are very rarely on-brand and generally have poor audio quality. At

best this can impact brand credibility and at worst, poor quality audio can leave callers

confused and frustrated about which option to choose. This can often be the first

impression of the organisation for a caller and poor audio quality and confusing badly

scripted options that are off brand can have a detrimental effect on the caller’s

perception.

Less than a quarter included a navigational option to take the caller back to the main

menu if they needed to. This can cause frustration if there are lots of layers to the IVR

tree.

In-Queue

Two-thirds of the Housing Associations we looked at had a consistent and appropriate

queue call volume. Lack of attention to this can often result in large rates of call

abandonment due to the caller not wanting to listen to something so loud or so quiet for

what could be a reasonably long amount of time.

Of the Housing Associations using in-queue music 57% were brand appropriate while only

38% had professionally recorded messages. Of the messages we heard, three-quarters of

Housing Associations used deflection messages directing their callers to self-serve on their

websites and two-thirds had comfort messages. However, only 10% featured a fully

mixed production.

Audio Scripting

We looked at the use of scripting in the IVR and in-queue. The stand out result of this

section was that only 13% of Housing Associations managed to avoid all the telephony

clichés. While 60% managed to keep to one topic per message, only 20% of the messages

were varied. Finally, in our opinion only 37% of messages sounded authentically

conversational.

The combination of these factors weighs heavily towards potentially damaging call

abandonment or to callers reaching agents in a frustrated or hostile state of mind.

Scripting is a lot harder to get right than most people think. A lot of what we heard had

been scripted and recorded in house, and unless you have a professional contact centre

script writer, then you are only going to achieve a low-quality recording of confusing IVR

options.

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IVR Routing

The chart below shows the overall scores for IVR routing.

All the Housing Associations with IVRs scored well for their IVR. Scoring was based on:

■ The presence of a welcome message

■ The number of options in the initial IVR menu

■ How many layers there were in the IVR tree

■ IVR messaging content

■ Audio quality

One Housing Association – Home Group – scored 100% while none scored lower than 64%.

Three of the 30 Housing Associations that we called – Thirteen Group, Stonewater and

Bromford – only had a welcome message with no subsequent IVR menu, so have been

excluded from the IVR analysis.

A2Dominion

Aster Group


Derwent Liv ing

Gentoo Group


Home Group

Liverty

London and Quadrant (L&Q)

Metropolitan

Midland Heart


Optivo

Orbit Group


Places for People





The Hyde Group

The Riverside Group

Viv id



WM Housing Group

Your Housing Group

Highest score: 100%

Lowest score: 64%

Average score: 80%

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In-Queue

The chart below shows the overall scores for in-queue experience.

When calling 9 of the 30 Housing Associations, we experienced a queuing time of less than

12 seconds. These have been excluded from this analysis as it was impossible to fairly

assess the in-queue experience.

Of the remaining 21 Housing Associations: all had an in-queue experience. The majority

include music and/or messaging (86% and 90% respectively), but only 10% had a fully

mixed production.

Two-thirds of the Housing Associations audited scored less than half for their queues.


Bromford


Derwent Liv ing

Gentoo Group


Metropolitan

Midland Heart


Orbit Group


Places for People




Stonewater


The Riverside Group



WM Housing Group

Highest score: 80%

Lowest score: 27%

Average score: 49%

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Audio Scripting

The chart shows the overall scores for scripting.

Calls were scored based on use of language contractions, avoidance of clichés,

compliance of scripting rules and humanisation of script.

Here we see that an overwhelming majority of Housing Associations are scoring 50% or

below. This suggests that scripting is poor and fails to engage callers. This can frustrate the

customer which can decrease satisfaction levels and can often be a cause of

abandonment.

This means that nearly all Housing Associations are not getting the value that a well

scripted IVR and In-queue messaging implementation has to offer.

A2Dominion

Aster Group

Bromford


Derwent Liv ing

Gentoo Group


Home Group

Liverty


Metropolitan

Midland Heart


Optivo

Orbit Group


Places for People




Stonewater


The Hyde Group

The Riverside Group

Thirteen Group

Viv id



WM Housing Group

Your Housing Group

Highest score: 83%

Lowest score: 0%

Average score: 29%

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Further statistics highlighted by our study…

IVR Routing

■ Housing Associations that use a branded welcome message: 100%

■ Housing Associations that have an IVR menu: 90%

Of which:

■ Proportion of professionally recorded IVRs: 48%

■ Percentage of IVRs containing a single voice artist: 93%

■ Proportion that presented high quality audio: 63%

■ Percentage that did not include navigation options in the menu: 78%

■ Average number of layers of options before getting through to an agent: 2

■ Average time in IVR: 47 seconds

In-Queue*

■ Housing Associations with an in-queue experience: 100%

■ In-Queue experiences that included music: 86%

➢ 67% of these were brand appropriate

■ In-Queue experiences that included messaging: 90%

➢ 42% of these were professionally recorded

■ Proportion of mixed productions used in-queue (i.e. messaging and music in the same

file, with no cutting in or out): 10%

■ Average time in-queue: 2 minutes 15 seconds

Audio Scripting

■ Housing Associations that avoided repetition in their menus and messaging: 23%

■ Proportion that failed to avoid cliché phrases: 87%

■ Percentage that had ‘humanised’ their messages: 37%

■ Proportion that kept to a single topic per message: 60%

* where we queued for more than 12 seconds

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Housing Associations: League Table

Our top scorers display stronger scores across the metrics, reflecting a holistic approach to

their pre-agent caller experience. By contrast, mid-ranked Housing Associations can score

highly on the basic structure of their IVR but have neglected the in-queue experience and

overall scripting. Scripting was a notable weak point for the majority of Housing

Associations. Repetition of language and messages added to tired clichés are key drivers

of caller frustration. These lead to increases in the negative results of undesirable call

abandonment and fractious caller-agent interactions.

Rank Total Supplier IVR IN-QUEUE SCRIPTING

1 81% Wakefield and District Housing 91% 73% 83%

2 75% The Guinness Partnership 82% 80% 50%

3 69% Gentoo Group 82% 67% 50%

4 66% Metropolitan 91% 60% 33%

5 63% Derwent Living 73% 53% 67%

6= 59% Clarion Housing Group 91% 47% 33%

6= 59% Waterloo Housing Group 82% 53% 33%

6= 59% Notting Hill Genesis 73% 60% 33%

9= 56% London and Quadrant (L&Q) 91% 47% 17%

9= 56% The Riverside Group 91% 47% 17%

9= 56% Peabody Housing Association 91% 40% 33%

9= 56% Places for People 91% 40% 33%

9= 56% A2Dominion 82% 40% 50%

14= 50% Sanctuary Housing Association 73% 47% 17%

14= 50% Sovereign Housing Association 73% 47% 17%

16= 44% Home Group 100% 0%^ 50%

16= 44% WM Housing Group 64% 40% 17%

18= 41% Southern Housing Group 73% 33% 0%

18= 41% Your Housing Group 73% 33%^ 0%

18= 41% Orbit Group 73% 27% 17%

18= 41% Glasgow Housing Association 73% 13%^ 50%

18= 41% Midland Heart 64% 33% 17%

23= 38% Optivo 91% 0%^ 33%

23= 38% The Hyde Group 82% 0%^ 50%

25 34% Stonewater 27%* 47% 17%

26= 30% Aster Group 64% 20%^ 0%

26= 30% Bromford 18%* 40% 33%

28 28% Liverty 82% 0%^ 0%

29 25% Vivid 55% 0%^ 33%

30 16% Thirteen Group 9%* 27%^ 0%

* No IVR after welcome message – rating is for welcome message only ^ Queueing time of <12 seconds – rating is based on anything we heard during this period

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Further information about this report

Metadata

The conclusions of this study were compiled using over 1,000 individual data points.

We recorded over 5.5 hours of raw audio during the auditing process.

Our Approach

All numbers dialled were customer service numbers most apparent on each Housing

Association’s website, as we believe callers will call the first customer service number they

come across.

The study was designed as per Premier CX’s Best Practice principles, which form the basis

of our consultancy services.

Every call was individually audited by a Senior Consultant.

All calls were audited from the original, unedited audio as recorded during the calling

process.

All calls were made over a 2-week period in July/August 2018.

Best-In-Class

We define a Best-In-Class telephony offering as one that gives equal focus to all aspects

of a call and puts the needs of the customer at the heart of every design decision. This

means that the scripting of the option menus is just as important as having those menus

professionally recorded and calls routed correctly to the agents.

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More on Premier CX

At Premier, we’ve spent over 20 years specialising in customer contact

experience.

We are an independent creative consultancy specialising in helping contact centres

optimise their customer experience across all channels. We work across all contact centre

touchpoints to reduce user effort, create brand consistency and improve customer

satisfaction.

Trusted by over 350 of the UK’s biggest brands; our award-winning strategic approach

seeks to streamline communication, creating a seamless and positive experience that is at

once creative, clear and on-brand.

Our work has a direct, tangible impact on contact centre performance, customer

experience and brand reputation enhancing interactions.

Our CX services

■ Audio Branding / Marketing

■ IVR Design

■ FAQ Videos

■ CX Consultancy

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Find out more…

Kevin O’Connor

Director of Contact Centre Sales

[email protected]

Kirsty Ferguson

Executive Assistant to Sales Director

[email protected]

Premier CX

Laverstoke Grange

Whitchurch

RG28 7PF

[email protected]

+44 (0)345 071 1359

premiercx.co.uk

Confidentiality and Copyright

© Premier CX is a trading name of Premier Business Audio Ltd. All information contained in this document, including any attachments is confidential, and provided solely for the eyes of the intended recipient. Neither the document, nor any part of it may be used for any other purpose, reproduced, published, disclosed or passed on to a third party without the permission of Premier Business Audio Ltd. These obligations shall not apply to information that is or becomes in the public domain legitimately from any source other than Premier Business Audio Ltd. Many of the products, services and names included in the document are trademarks, registered or otherwise. Such trademarks are all acknowledged.

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Housing Association CX - swccf.co.uk · Notting Hill Genesis Optivo Orbit Group Peabody Housing Association Places for People Sanctuary Housing Association Southern Housing Group